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Intangible Property Under the Federal Mail Fraud Statute and the Takings Clause: a Case Study

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Intangible Property Under the Federal Mail Fraud Statute and the Takings Clause: a Case Study HOSTETLER.DOC 12/01/00 3:38 PM INTANGIBLE PROPERTY UNDER THE FEDERAL MAIL FRAUD STATUTE AND THE TAKINGS CLAUSE: A CASE STUDY MICHAEL J. HOSTETLER At first blush, the reader might wonder what the federal mail fraud statute1 (or, more generally, federal criminal law) and the Takings Clause2 have in common. Surprisingly, perhaps, the most notable commonality is that many court decisions have hinged on how the court viewed property. Of course, in one regime, a taking of property can land one in jail, whereas in the other, a taking of property can result in compensation from the government. I believe such different results, hinging on the same concept, offer sufficient grist to justify this investigation. At the broadest level, this Note asks whether the concept of property has remained unified or has become fractured upon exposure to the judicial system.3 When deciding a case, courts have Copyright © 2000 by Michael J. Hostetler. 1. 18 U.S.C. § 1341 (1994): Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property . places in any post office or authorized depository for mail matter, any matter or thing whatever to be sent or delivered by the Postal Service . shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. What I discuss about mail fraud will also apply to 18 U.S.C. § 1343 (1994), the statute prohibiting wire fraud. The only major difference between the two federal fraud statutes is the jurisdictional element (use of mails versus use of interstate wires); the property definitions are interchangeable. See, e.g., United States v. Brumley, 59 F.3d 517, 520 n.4 (5th Cir. 1995) (“The mail fraud . and wire fraud . statutes are nearly identical . .”); United States v. Castillo, 829 F.2d 1194, 1198 (1st Cir. 1987) (“The language of the (newer) wire fraud statute . tracks that of the (older) mail fraud statute. The requisite elements of the crimes . are identical.”); United States v. Lemire, 720 F.2d 1327, 1334-35 n.6 (D.C. Cir. 1983) (“The requisite elements . under the . [statutes] . are identical. Thus, cases construing mail fraud apply to the wire fraud statute as well.”). 2. U.S. CONST. amend. V (“[N]or shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”). 3. In many ways, this Note is a study in comparative law. Most comparative law studies examine how different legal systems approach a problem. Thus, one might compare eminent domain policies in different countries. These studies allow one to appreciate better the unique 589 HOSTETLER.DOC 12/01/00 3:38 PM 590 DUKE LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 50:589 the opportunity to apply the selective pressures of public policy to interpret and shape legal principles. The more malleable the principle, the more likely that different camps will form, which in turn creates the potential for the divergent evolution of the original principle.4 How does this scenario play out with a principle as nebulous as property?5 Essentially, there are two theoretical positions, which I will call the “pragmatist’s universe” and the “idealist’s universe.” In the pragmatist’s universe, the perceived differences in policy behind each statute lead to two different visions of property. Thus, viewed through the lens of crime prevention, a broad definition of property is needed to uphold the convictions of those who creatively invent new types of wrongs; on the other hand, viewed through the lens of fiscal conservatism, a narrow definition of property is needed to hamper a takings claimant’s case and give the government more flexibility to initiate projects inexpensively. Exposed to these different selective pressures, one would expect the meaning of property in criminal law is to evolve into a different form than in takings law. In the idealist’s universe, property generally has the same form in both criminal law and takings law because overarching principles, features of a particular legal system and also, when applied historically, to understand what forces have caused a particular legal system to evolve in the way it has. A related approach, which this Note adopts, and which has not received as much attention, is to ask whether core legal concepts evolve differentially within different branches of the same legal system. One might imagine, for example, that when a legal system is relatively small and simple, most practitioners would be accomplished in several areas of law, and, as a result, developments in one area of law are likely to be consistent with the precedents in other areas of law. However, as the legal system becomes larger and more complex, the need for a practitioner to specialize becomes greater; as a result, some of the original common terms may evolve into terms of art. But do the most basic legal concepts, such as property, undergo differential evolution in separate branches of law? Or, are these fundamental concepts so vital to the broader system of law that differential evolution is constrained by, for example, public policy? A full exposition of these issues is left for another day. 4. For other applications of the concepts of Darwinian evolution to law, see generally JOHN H. BECKSTROM, EVOLUTIONARY JURISPRUDENCE: PROSPECTS AND LIMITATIONS ON THE USE OF MODERN DARWINISM THROUGHOUT THE LEGAL PROCESS (1989); Raymond R. Coletta, The Measuring Stick of Regulatory Takings: A Biological and Cultural Analysis, 1 U. PA. J. CONST. L. 20 (1998); and Owen D. Jones, Law and Evolutionary Biology: Obstacles and Opportunities, 10 J. CONTEMP. HEALTH L. & POL’Y 265 (1994). 5. As will be shown, property can mean everything from land to the right to exclude another from land; from an automobile to the right to earn money from leasing the automobile; from a patent to secret information; from money to the right to control how money is spent. See infra Part II (discussing how the law has viewed property through the lenses of the mail fraud statute and the Takings Clause). HOSTETLER.DOC 12/01/00 3:38 PM 2000] INTANGIBLE PROPERTY 591 such as basic fairness and preservation of a legal system’s legitimacy, ensure that concepts of property do not differentially evolve. The idealist might argue that if the government is willing to say that something is property in order to send a person to prison, then it should be willing to pay compensation if the government itself takes the same property. This quid pro quo constrains the opposing policy forces in the pragmatist’s universe from creating multiple forms of property. But which viewpoint—the pragmatist’s or the idealist’s—emerges triumphant? To study this question, I have selected as my laboratory judicial interpretations of intangible property. Why intangible property? First, the question of what is property, especially for tangible objects and the rights that inhere within these objects, is relatively noncontroversial, and, as such, would make for a less interesting discussion. Second, differentiating intangible property from other intangible interests tests the limits of how we view property. Finally, in our information age, the intangible often has a value commensurate with the tangible, yet few articles have considered the judicial boundary between intangible interests and intangible property.6 After analyzing a broad range of intangible property interests, I find that, although the real world is more complex than either model, certain patterns do emerge. Thus, some types of intangible property are treated similarly under both the mail fraud statute and the Takings Clause, while a few are treated differently. Much more interesting, however (because of possible precedential value), are those intangible property interests that have only been analyzed in the light of one of these two areas of case law. 6. Although the view that intangible interests should be considered property has been around since the founding of the republic, see James Madison, Essay on “Property,” NAT’L GAZETTE, Mar. 29, 1792, reprinted in THE MIND OF THE FOUNDER: SOURCES OF THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF JAMES MADISON 186 (M. Meyers rev. ed. 1981) (“As we have a right to our property, so we have property in our rights.”), few modern articles have revived this approach. See, e.g., John O. McGinnis, The Once and Future Property-Based Vision of the First Amendment, 63 U. CHI. L. REV. 49, 56 (1996) (arguing that Madison drafted the First Amendment in order to protect a citizen’s “property right in their ideas and opinions”); Laura S. Underkuffler, On Property: An Essay, 100 YALE L.J. 127, 128-29 (1990): During the American Founding Era, property included not only external objects and people’s relationships to them, but also all of those human rights, liberties, powers, and immunities that are important for human well-being, including: freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, freedom from bodily harm, and free and equal opportunities to use personal faculties. HOSTETLER.DOC 12/01/00 3:38 PM 592 DUKE LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 50:589 Having described the world as it is, I then turn to describing the world as it should be. I adopt the philosophy presented by the idealist above and argue for a consistent vision of property. Thus, understandings of property in one body of case law should have precedential or referential value for the other area of case law. Consistency is needed to limit the executive branch’s ability to prosecute overly broad statutes and to provide legitimacy to the government’s eminent domain policies. In Part I of this Note, I will present a brief introduction to the mail and wire fraud statutes and to the Takings Clause; in particular, I will illustrate the importance of property definitions to both areas of law.
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